(Updating an earlier thread)
I’m using Chile as an example because my husband’s family experienced the Pinochet dictatorship, so I have first hand accounts.
I’ll also explain why I get so testy with the doomsayers.
Sources for facts and quotations are from:
Chile is a good example because—like the US, and unlike other countries who have experienced right wing uprisings—Chile had a long tradition of democratic institutions prior to the Pinochet dictatorship.
Ziblatt and Levitsky say Chile had one of the strongest democracies in the region prior to Pinochet.
In Sept, 1973, far right wing Gen. Pinochet pulled off a military coup and installed himself as a dictator. The coup was made possible partly because of a complete breakdown in trust between two of Chile’s major political parties. (Yeah, I know about the US involvement)
Political leaders from opposing parties couldn’t bear to speak to each others. They behaved childishly.
Even after Pinochet installed himself as a dictator, the “distrust persisted, eclipsing their shared revulsion toward Pinochet’s dictatorship.”
In 1978, the opposing parties started talking. Eventually they rebuilt trust.
By 1985 the anti-Pinochet forces came together and signed a National Accord for a Transition to a Full Democracy. (Not everyone joined. You’ll never get the hard-core right wingers) The talks staved off “potentially destabilizing conflicts.”
When enough people came together (remember, not everyone) democracy was restored.
What’s the lesson? For me, it’s: Find common ground with anyone who doesn’t support Trump’s autocratic methods and work on building a majority coalition.
You can find common ground and compromise with someone you don’t admire or want to emulate.
Heather says “our despair is entitlement.” Ok, it was a bit harsh—but I agree.
People who grew up after the Civil Rights and women’s rights movements inherited an expanding liberal democracy, meaning
Before the rapid changes of the 1950s and 1960s, racial discrimination was legal. Jim Crow was the law of the land. Women were second class citizens.
Think of what life was like for a black woman in America in 1850. She didn’t own her own body, literally. All the great progressive heroes (MLK, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Susan B. Anthony, etc.) fought the same battles against the same forces.
After Trump loses in November, his supporters are not going to fold up shop and learn to love liberal democracy. They’ll keep plotting and trying to seize the steering wheel and turn us backwards again.
Progressives push forward. Reactionaries push back. It never ends. I advise people not to go down “what if” rabbit holes because we can’t predict what turns the fight will take.
My husband saved this:
He had to carry it to prove that he voted for Pinochet.
I get frustrated and testy with the doomsday people, and people who say, “it’s all over.” What’s all over? It wasn’t all over in Chile, even under a military dictatorship.
It’s never too late to get out from under an autocrat, and the fight for democracy is never over. I wrote my FAQs and To-Do list for people who are exhausted, worn out, and think it’s all over.
Lots of people died under Pinochet. When the parties finally got their acts together and teamed up and came together, they were able to make a peaceful transition. Family stories reinforce this.
That’s probably why I have faith in strong majorities.
Unfortunately it didn’t happen until people were weary from the horrors of his regime. Ukraine is another success story of what a motivated majority can accomplish. “Motivated majority” is key. Whining and rage tweeting isn’t activism. (Some people seem to think it is.)
Even in a thread where I warned that the doomsaying and negativism is making me testy, I got these comments:
Let’s be very clear: The deaths are not just the fault of the autocrats and dictators. The deaths are the fault of people who are not doing their part. .
Everyone is responsible. If people making these kinds of comments have personally put in time (and I mean a lot of time) working to save democracy and helping the vulnerable, they are entitled to a little bit of this.
The thing about democracy is that you can’t sit around blaming other people if things aren’t going right because democracy literally means “rule by the people.” And we’re the people. So we are responsible.
I’ll conclude this mini rant by telling new subscribers that I walk the walk. In 2018 and 2019 I spent a few weeks in a detention center in Texas offering legal assistance to asylum seekers (traveling at my own expense.) The past year, I’ve put in a few hundred hours doing voter protection volunteer legal work and I feel guilty that I don’t do more.
We will never have a perfect world: We will always have autocrats trying to grab power. We will always have people trying to hurt the vulnerable. So the rest of us have to work hard to offset it and protect the vulnerable.
After I had that mini rant, I had this exchange with a follower, who commented on the negativism:
Also, I learned a new quotation today: “It takes courage not to be discouraged.” Benjamin Ferencz, former Nuremburg prosecutor.
